From this Friday's The O'Reilly Factor, here's something you don't see everyday on Faux "news." Border Angels' Enrique Morones stepped all over guest host Eric Bolling and former Tea Party Patriots founder Mark Meckler's talking points, fearmongering over California allowing undocumented immigrants being allowed to have drivers licenses.
Morones also got a shot in on the network for allowing members of hate groups, like FAIR's Dan Stein on the air, and told Meckler he needed to do a better job of educating himself on the topic of immigration rather than taking his cues from Stein and his ilk. I'll be surprised if they let Morones on again any time soon.
From O'Reilly's site, here's how the segment was framed:
Driver's Licenses to Non-Citizens
On the subject of immigration, California has become the 10th state to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Immigration advocate Enrique Morones explained why, in his opinion, California is doing the right thing. "There's no such thing as an 'illegal' human being," he stated. "These are undocumented people who are driving to work and dropping their kids at school. Now they'll have an opportunity to apply for a license after they take the test and get insurance. I want to know that the guy driving next to me has taken the driving test." Tea Party activist Mark Meckler laid out the other side of the argument. "It's a privilege to drive and that privilege requires an underlying citizenship. If you can't follow the basic laws then I don't think you should get the privilege to have a driver's license. This is a wave of undocumented immigrants like nothing we have seen before in American history." Eric concluded with a rhetorical question, asking, "Shouldn't they become legal citizens before they have the privilege to drive?"
They failed to mention what followed, which was Morones hitting them for giving groups like FAIR airtime and taking apart Meckler's ridiculous talking points about how his "forefathers" came to America legally. As Morones pointed out, our laws have changed since those days.
Here's a rough transcript of some of the back and forth:
MECKLER: Eric, look, Enrique is misrepresenting American history. This is a wave of undocumented immigrants like none before in American history. My forefathers came over from Ukraine, they were legal immigrants. My wife's grandparents came over from Ireland. They were legal immigrants. This wave of illegal immigrants being sanctioned by the federal government is like nothing we've ever seen before in American history, so trying to paint this as just American history and continuity is just false. It's a false narrative and Enrique's peddling that false narrative.
BOLLING: So, Enrique... go ahead.
MORONES: That's not true and when your forefathers and foremothers came, there was no illegal way to come. People just came. So you really need to learn your history. I know you went to San Diego State and all that, but you need to be better educated on these issues. The last person you want to look at for a source if the Federation of American Immigration Reform...
MECKLER: Enrique, my relatives came through, they had documents. My relatives had papers...
MORONES: Yeah, they were able to come...
MECKLER: … they were legal. They came through the island. They didn't sneak across the border. They were not illegal immigrants. They were the very definition of legal immigrants as were my wife's grandparents who came over from Ireland. They had the proper paperwork.
MORONES: There was no illegal way.
MECKLER: They processed through the government. They did not sneak across the border.
MORONES: They want that option today and it doesn't exist. That's why we need humane immigration reform. There is no line for these people.
BOLLING: Let's expand this a little bit. If illegals should be allowed to drive, should they also be... should they also have access to Obamacare and health care?
MORONES: I have no idea what an illegal is, but as a form of human being, undocumented people do not qualify for the health care reform act as you know. The last source you want, you just had a hate group guy on the other day... a few moments ago, Dan Stein. Come on! You going to use that as your source of information? You need to look at the facts and both sides of the aisle have to do a better job in (inaudible) humane immigration reform.
